Turtle

Native American legend has it that the sun was formed long ago when a coyote got tired of the dark and cold. Taking a hawk, rabbit and turtle with him, he went in search of fire. Upon finding humans in a cave, the coyote tricked them into getting close enough so he could steal some of their fire. He ran off with the fire on the tip of his tail. The humans chased him. The coyote yelled to the hawk to take the fire. The hawk grabbed the fire and passed it to the rabbit, who gave it to the turtle.

Thousands of children flocked to downtown Glen Burnie on Sunday to participate in County Executive O. James Lighthizer's sixth annual Children's Halloween Safety Party.Michelangelo, the evil Shredder and April O'Neil of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fame entertained the children, as did Ronald McDonald.Booths from local community organizations and services were on hand as well as literature on targeting children on how to have a safe Halloween.Winners of the Halloween costume parades received a $35 gift certificate from Lionel Kidde City and the group winners received a $100 gift certificate from Lionel Kidde City.

IN FRONT of McKeldin Library, in the center of the University of Maryland College Park campus, is a giant turtle. It's not a real turtle; it's made from metal, and sits atop a stone pedestal. The name of the turtle is Testudo, and he's a sort of unofficial mascot of desperate students at the University.A story that every College Park freshman hears is that rubbing Testudo's nose insures good luck on an upcoming test.Like other freshmen, I snickered when I first heard this story nearly four years ago. Foolish superstition foisted off on new students -- that's what I thought at the time.

We all know Ogden Nash observed that candy is dandy but liquor is quicker and insisted that we should speak low when we speak love. But Skolpaddan skyddar njurar och mjalte? Who gnu? The Swedish translation of Ogden Nash arrives just in time for his 100th birthday anniversary tomorrow. "Skolpaddan" seems to be "The Turtle," the quatrain in which Nash celebrates the turtle's ingenious fertility. The turtle lives 'twixt plated decks Which practically conceal its sex. I think it clever of the turtle In such a fix to be so fertile.

WASHINGTON -- Lex Latex, the talking balloon, is feeling a little deflated these days.Sure, kids still squeal with delight when he's twisted into the shape of a poodle.But release him into the sky and those squeals become howls of protest. Or worse.In fact, legions of protesting schoolchildren have persuaded four states and a host of municipalities, including Baltimore, to ban the mass release of balloons.The youngsters, egged on by a pair of crusading biology teachers and a small group of environmentalists, say that wayward balloons can end upfatally lodged in the gullets of sea turtles, whales and shore birds.

Two of the most dramatic picture books published recently share a message of warning about what a mess we've made of the world.But they are as different as two books can be.The first, "We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy" (HarperCollins, $20, 56 pages, all ages), is by Maurice Sendak, one of the masters of modern children's literature.The second, "Old Turtle" (Pfeifer-Hamilton Publishers, $17.95, 47 pages, all ages), is the first book by author Douglas Wood and the first by illustrator Cheng-Khee Chee.

ENDANGERED TURTLE SAVED FROM SOUP HANOI, Vietnam -- They're calling him "the lucky royal turtle" -- a rare and endangered reptile that was saved from a Chinese soup pot by keen-eyed wildlife officers and a microchip. Poachers snatched the animal, called a royal turtle in Cambodia because its eggs were once fed to kings, from a river there two months ago and toted it across the Vietnamese border with a stash of other, more common turtles. Conservationists said that at 33 pounds, the animal was sure to fetch a good price at the smuggler's destination: the food markets of China, where turtle meat is a delicacy often made into soup.

ALL APPEARED to be in order on first glance around the quarantine room behind the seal pool at the National Aquarium in Baltimore.Harbor seal 91-05 rested comfortably in his pool. Thin and debilitated when rescued several weeks ago on a Virginia beach, the nearly full-grown seal stirred at my presence, a signal that his breakfast of herring and smelt was probably on its way. His huge dark eyes followed my every movement, reminding me that I wasn't alone SueNevyin being awake and on the job at 7:30 on a Saturday morning.

Tuesday, Michaelangelo, leader of the Teenage Mutant Turtles, had just completed his anti-drug message to a gathering of first- and second-graders -- all wearing complimentary Ninja eye bands -- at Baltimore's Johnston Square Elementary School, in the shadow of the State Penitentiary. "That's like the Turtle message, dudes," he concluded, " 'cause you don't need to mutate."Then, the bilious green, muscle-bound reptile called for questions. One young boy cut to the quick: "Where your #F weapons at?"

This year's Eldersburg Elementary School art project began as a series of paper models. The pupils chose the best and easiest-to-build design. They shopped for lumber at the hardware store and painstakingly measured to ensure the planks were cut to their specifications. The classes spent the better part of the school year building, sanding, sewing and painting. The true test came yesterday as the pupils launched two single-mast ships at Deer Park Pond in Gamber. After the unmanned trials, they pronounced their 9-foot crafts seaworthy.